


Take It Back

by starstruck1986



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-23
Updated: 2013-03-23
Packaged: 2017-12-06 05:37:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/732032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starstruck1986/pseuds/starstruck1986
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Warnings/Contents: Weasleycest, EWE (sort of), emotional infidelity, hurt/comfort, language.<br/>Summary: Ron had no idea that when he reached for him, he would end up feeling so bad about it...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take It Back

“Please, please go to sleep,” Ron whimpered, cuddling his baby to his chest. “Please, go to sleep, go to sleep... please go to sleep.”

Another wail rang out from his child's mouth and Ron clenched his jaw. His teeth were aching from the amount of times he had done that in the past five hours.

“Shh,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to his tiny little boy's tiny ginger head.

He was unable to stop tears from rising in his own eyes, to match the crying baby's, and sucked in a deep breath to try and stop the flow. He jiggled the little parcel of heat and limbs in his arms and pulled Hugo closer to his chest.

_Hugo. What a stupid fucking name. I told her it was a mistake._

Ron choked on a sob and wondered how in Merlin's name he was meant to look after his son when it felt like the bottom had dropped out of his world. The slamming door had set Hugo off crying and he hadn't stopped since. Up until then, which was quarter to midnight, Ron had somehow, miraculously, managed to hold it together, but his headache and the pain in his chest and ears had finally pushed him to breaking point.

“Go to sleep, you little shit,” he hissed bitterly, knowing it was wrong to take everything out on his son, who had no idea what had even happened.

“Ron, give me the baby.”

Jumping out of his skin, Ron nearly dropped Hugo on his head. Strong arms shot out and snatched the baby out of thin air; Ron looked up in surprise to see Charlie holding his nephew.

“Godric's balls, what's wrong with you?” Charlie asked, his tone serious. He shifted Hugo in his arms. “You said it was urgent in your Patronus.”  
“Yeah... it was... I just kind of needed you to come and...” he gestured at Hugo and then turned away, reaching up to scrub his hands over his face. He moaned into them.  
“Okay,” Charlie murmured. “Come on, Hugo...”

Ron listened, without turning around, to the sounds of his brother soothing the son that Ron had failed to comfort for five whole hours. His heart was dying as he heard the contented gurgling of Hugo as he started to fall asleep; how was it that everybody so much better at parenting than him, even a man who was so anti-children that he claimed it was the best thing about being gay, after the sex?

“Shh, there you go, little one. Sleep tight, nighty night.”

Charlie cooed the baby to sleep for a few minutes more and finally the room fell blissfully silent. Ron waited for the questions to start, but all that happened was that Charlie wrapped his fingers around his wrist and began to tug him towards the door.

They walked in silence out onto the landing and down the stairs into the lounge; Charlie steered Ron onto the sofa and sat down on the coffee table in front of him.

“Where's Hermione?”

Even though he had known the question was coming, it tightened Ron's throat, and the thought of answering made him feel nauseous. Charlie granted him about half a minute of leeway before he went on.

“Ron? What's wrong? Talk to me.”

Ron coughed. “Hermione's gone.”  
“Gone? Gone where? To see her mum and dad in Australia? Don't you normally go with her as a family? Where's Rose, is she asleep?”

Every word was like a knife in Ron's chest. He had to take a few deep breaths before he could speak again. “No, Charlie. Gone, gone. As in, she said she was leaving me, went and got Rosie from bed, and slammed the front door behind them.”

Ron looked at the shock in Charlie's expression and nearly found himself laughing.

“What happened?” Charlie asked, shifting forward on the edge of the table and reaching out to pick up one of Ron's hands. Their fingers laced together.  
“Don't!” Ron snapped, jerking his arm back.

Charlie didn't release him but merely tightened his grip.

“Charlie, my marriage is over, do you really think that what I need at the minute is _that_?” He cast a filthy look down at their joined hands. “This could have ended my relationship with Hermione, but it didn't. I almost wish it fucking had, then it'd be on my terms that way.”  
“Oh, Ron...”

Charlie swiftly moved from the coffee table onto the seat next to Ron's and pulled their hands into his lap. Ron said nothing more as more fingers encased his own, and the heat was immense. He leaned into the back support cushion and moaned.

“D'you want to talk about it?” Charlie tried.  
“I don't know what I want,” Ron admitted. “I tried to chase after her but she disapparated at the gate and then there was Hugo...” He heard the whine rising in his voice and he allowed Charlie to pull him close, Ron even went as far as stuffing his face in his brother's neck. Only then did he allow the tears to roll again, when he was hidden.

“Oh, Ronnie, don't cry. Please...” Charlie began to stroke his hair. “I'm sure you two can work this out.”  
“Charlie?”  
“What, babe?”  
“I don't _want_ to sort it out. I want to just... I want to let it die.”  
“What about the kids?” Charlie asked.  
“Well she seems to want it one each... as long as I get to see Rose, and she gets to see Hugo, even though it seems like she doesn't want him...”  
“Ron, don't think that. I'm sure there was a reason for the way she acted.”  
“Because she's a bitch, that's why,” Ron muttered darkly.  
“Are you going to tell me why she ended it?”

Ron chewed on his bottom lip.

“She said that I wasn't a good enough husband. Not a good enough lover. Not a good enough father. Not good enough full stop.”  
“That's so not fair,” Charlie said flatly. “You're the best father and I know people can never know what goes on behind closed doors, but I bet you don't knock her about, you remember birthdays and anniversaries and you wash up...”

Ron shook his head. “It wasn't enough for her, apparently. She also called me thick.”  
“Yeah, but she's always called you thick... we never thought she'd leave you because of it.”  
“I never thought she'd leave me at all...” Ron breathed out of his mouth and neglected to breathe back in again.

Charlie allowed him some peace and merely continued stroking his hair. Ron tried not to think about how wrong it was that he had fallen into the arms of his old lover -his brother- the minute that his wife had called an end to their marriage. He tried not to think about how wrong it was that his brother had ever been his lover in the first place. They hadn't properly slept together for a long time, not since the end of the war and the turbulent years after it, but the bond which had been present since Ron's birth had never gone away. He had never wanted it to.

“D'you want a cup of tea? Or something a bit stronger?”  
“Can't... not when Hugo's here.”  
“That's Hermione's rule, and she's not around, Ron. You look like you could do with a bloody good drink.”  
“Charlie... just stay with me?”

Ron knew he must have looked suitably pathetic because Charlie's expression softened and he leant in to press a kiss to Ron's forehead. His lips lingered on the skin and Ron fought back a shiver. Against his better judgement he nuzzled harder into his brother's body and inhaled the smell of him – familiar scents of powder, spice and musk: Charlie.

“You deserved better,” Charlie murmured. “You so deserved better, my love. I love you.”  
“I love you too, Charlie. Please don't tell me you have anywhere else to be tonight?”  
“Nope,” Charlie said airily, and Ron immediately knew he was lying. He waited. “I ran out on a date when I got your message to come here, so there's a pretty confused blond bloke waiting for me to come back from the toilet in a pretty seedy club in Muggle London, but... I'm here now, and I'm not going anywhere, okay?”

He kissed Ron again.

“You're such a shit date, Charlie.” Ron laughed humourlessly.  
“Oh, I know, but nobody's more important than you, Ron. I'm missing out on a shag... for you.”  
“Only because you know you'll probably get one here.”  
“Hey, that's not fucking fair!”

Charlie's voice took on a hard tone.

“I had no idea what had happened when you messaged me, but I dropped it all and ran for you. You haven't deigned to fucking sleep with me for years, so why the hell would I expect it tonight?”

Ron could tell he had annoyed his brother by the way his muscles hardened.

“I know you're hurting, but there's no need to pass it on to me, Ron. I'm only trying to be here for you.”  
“Charlie, I'm sorry.”  
“I know you are, but do you take it back?”

Ron sighed. The concept of 'taking it back' was something Charlie had always held with him and they had forced it with one another. Whatever ills fell out of their lips about the other, said other always forced them to take it back, by physical brutality or mental torment or a full blown argument.

“I take it back,” Ron said submissively, turning his head away.  
“Good. I would never just be here for you because I thought I'd get to fuck you at the end of it.”  
“I know, I'm sorry. Please, just drop it? And if you can't, just leave, because I really don't need any more shit at the minute.”

He made to get up, but Charlie grabbed him around the waist and held him in place.

“Don't get up. Stay put with me here. Hugo's fast asleep now.”  
“I don't want to sit still.”  
“I know you don't, but there's nothing you can do. You don't know where she is. The baby is asleep. It's midnight and there's nothing to do. Just rest, and let me look after you.”  
“Let's go to bed then,” Ron breathed. “I just want to lie down if you won't let me run around and obsessively clean.”  
“Your house is spotless.”  
“It could be cleaner,” Ron mused, catching sight of some of Rosie's toys on the floor.  
“Bedtime,” Charlie declared.

***

Even though they had been lying there for hours, and Charlie was curled up behind him snoring lightly into his neck, Ron hadn't once closed his eyes. He couldn't. Every time he did he saw Hermione's face, and then Rosie's face and then Hugo's face.

“Oh, Godric,” he whispered to himself.

He tried to breathe deep and keep the tears away. Charlie shifted behind him and kissed his neck. They'd had sex before Charlie fell asleep, as quietly as possible so that they wouldn't wake the baby. Ron still hadn't been able to keep his mouth shut when he'd come; Charlie had worked him into such a state and wrung so much tension out of him that he could no longer hold onto his pleasure.

There had been no question of saying no. He hadn't wanted to say no.

But now Charlie was asleep, there was no way of taking the desire and their actions back. There was no way of waking up in the morning and finding everything had been a horrible dream -a nightmare where his marriage had ended and where he had given into an urge which he had been fighting, and winning against, for years. He had given in to Charlie, given him his body and his kisses. Ron felt like a failure. He felt like a traitor. He felt more than a little bit desperate.

He jumped slightly as Charlie's grip around him tightened and he was dragged backwards, his buttocks pressing into his brother's crotch in the closeness. Charlie's cock was impressive even when it was asleep. He could feel it there, taunting him.

“Love you,” Charlie whispered in his sleep.

Ron felt something break inside his chest.

_-fin-_   



End file.
